The Celtics were down early, 13-4, but closed within 13-12 on a alley-oop from Avery Bradley to David Lee and threes by Bradley and Isaiah Thomas. They then took their first lead on a floater by Thomas with under five minutes to play.

The score at the end of the first quarter was 32-31 Boston after the Celtics shot 55% field goals to the Knicks 46%.

After a little back and forth in the second quarter supported by hot three-point shooting by the Knicks, New York found themselves ahead 48-41. Continuing their spirited play and capitalizing on a lot of missed Celtics layups, the Knicks went to halftime with a 54-47 lead.

Amir Johnson and Jae Crowder, both of whom started the game with Isaiah Thomas, Lee and Bradley, were pulled from the game at halftime by Brad Stevens for rest. In their place were Tyler Zeller and Evan Turner, the latter who made well of his first-half minutes.

After finding themselves quickly down in a double-digit hole, a sweet dance move to the hoop by Thomas and a three by Turner cut the Celtics deficit to 65-62. Score at the end of the frame was 77-73 Knicks.

James Young impressed early in his stint late in the game with two threes. and again with just over 3 minutes left which closed the gap to 2.

The end of the bench got some minutes in the final frame, but weren't able to catch up.

High scorer for the Celtics was Thomas with 13. Derrick Williams of New York had 19.